


this is how legends are made

by Marvelgeek42



Series: if you're a church (i'd get on my knees) [1]
Category: Leverage
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Gen, Multimedia elements, Non-Binary Parker, Other Fandoms Not Mentioned in Tags, POV Third Person, Pagan Gods, Present Tense, Wordcount: 10.000-30.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2021-02-25 05:53:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21811123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marvelgeek42/pseuds/Marvelgeek42
Summary: It’s something that begins small and not all that much different than what was there before and then blooms and grows until it ends up becoming something incredibly great and powerful.(Of course, it’s also the first shot of heroin that starts an addiction. The first accepted bribe. The first shot in a war. The first punch in a fight or the first car in a massive pileup. The first time someone thinks “I deserve this more than them”.It’s volatile and dangerous and can hurt a lot of people if handled incorrectly.)
Relationships: Alec Hardison & Parker & Eliot Spencer, Sophie Devereaux & Nathan Ford & Alec Hardison & Parker & Eliot Spencer, Sophie Devereaux/Nathan Ford, Team Leverage & Others
Series: if you're a church (i'd get on my knees) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1591990
Comments: 18
Kudos: 38





	this is how legends are made

**Author's Note:**

  * For [the_crownless_queen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_crownless_queen/gifts).



> Here it is, finally! This is literally my first work in the fandom and my new longest oneshot. Because go big or go home I guess.  
> Thank you to DobbyRocksSocks for betaing this monster.

There is never a clear start to the change. There is no day when someone just wakes up and realizes that things are different now, that they aren’t quite the same as they were the day before and that they can sense the world around them differently.

This isn’t the kind of thing that begins with the turn of a switch, after all. No, it’s not like that. This works nothing like that whatsoever. This is the spark and that proceeds to grow into a flame. The first step towards a life of freedom and independence. The first time someone stands up and says “no”, says “this went too far”, says “stop”. 

It’s something that begins small and not all that much different than what was there before and then blooms and grows until it ends up becoming something incredibly great and powerful.

_(Of course, it’s also the first shot of heroin that starts an addiction. The first accepted bribe. The first shot in a war. The first punch in a fight or the first car in a massive pileup. The first time someone thinks “I deserve this more than them”._

_It’s volatile and dangerous and can hurt a lot of people if handled incorrectly.)_

* * *

As many things as they plan, this is not one of them.

They probably could have, if they wanted to, if they had been aware of the possibility, but why would they? One of them almost became a _priest_ , after all. This wasn’t something that they wanted or desired to happen. That is possibly a part of the reason that it works so well, that it gets so far without them noticing.

They are all intelligent people, so when something changes and when that change stays consistent, they become suspicious. They wouldn’t have gotten to this point if they weren’t aware enough to notice a change like this happening to them. They needed a huge amount of confidence to get to where they are, yes, but an equal if not a greater level of competence to back it all up. None of this would work if that was not the case, after all. If they weren’t as good at what they do, they never would have gotten to the point that all this could have happened.

_(But they are and thus this tale can be told.)_

* * *

**localsuperhero** **  
** Okay so am I the only one who thinks that the crew of Leverage Consulting and Associates have a vaguely cryptid vibe or 

**sherlockiantomato** **  
** OMG I KNEW IT COULDN’T BE JUST ME!!

 **such_horrible_things** **  
** yes!! i mean, cryptid is mostly used for animals traditionally, but I feel like at this point it has expanded to mean anything odd and kind of supernatural. and that definitely works for them.

 **imbluedabudi** **  
** who are these people? is this an american thing?

 **leverage_expert** **  
** Technically, yes. Leverage Consulting and Associates are an American firm. It doesn’t really matter in this context what their official work is. That is because it’s — allegedly — a cover for their Robin Hood-style work.  
Modern-day Robin Hood, y’all.  
As far as I can tell, there are only five members in the group and, for obvious reasons, no one knows their actual names. I can tell you that there are definitely two women on the team (I think. Nothing about any team member being not cis has reached me so I'm assuming) and that I’ve personally heard the African American team member (again, I'm assuming, but he's definitely Black) say he is Jewish. I do not know if that was part of a role, but considering that I have heard of multiple other people who have heard him say this, I don’t think so.  
I’ve heard of them helping Indigenous people protect their lands, helping women in majority Muslim countries fight against having to wear a hijab on at the very least a local level (Note: absolutely no problem with people wanting to wear it. It’s being pressured and/or forced to do so that I have a problem with), help people in sweatshops fight for more human rights, and way, way, _way_ more.  
There are records of them being in Russia, Dubai, and San Lorenzo, just to name a few. Always protecting children or taking down horrible people. Yes, they’re thieves, but in all honesty? I couldn’t care less about that part. They steal from those who unjustly hoard wealth, not from the small guy, so really I don’t give a shit.  
The work they do is important — they’ve literally stopped a famine that a firm i will not name for legal reasons tried to engineer. It’s very impressive as well. Because they appear to be experts on a whole variety of topics. I don’t know if they actually are or just that good at faking it, but I personally think that it’s incredibly impressive either way.  
I’ve heard of nothing they can’t fix and they never demand payment. Quite the opposite, they’re more likely to pay you! Which is why I agree with OP, there’s definitely something vaguely superhuman about them. They appear, fix your problems, and then disappear. No payment, no favor owed, nothing. That’s not something that humans commonly do. We should, definitely, and it also does happen. But rarely on the level that these people do.  
Anyway, that’s all I have time for right now, but this is the need to know introduction to the team. Hope that helps!  
(also if you’re interested here is the link to a forum dedicated to them, in case any of you want to know more)

* * *

Not one member of the Leverage team has ever sought publicity for publicity’s sake. They had grown fairly popular among a few groups of people for certain parts of their job — like the time Eliot temporarily becomes a country musician, yes. And they become the talk among many criminals the longer they work. Their marks, once done licking their wounds, also tell the people left on their side about them, as some sort of warning. It is a tale that spreads like wildfire. All of that is undeniably true.

But they never become widely enough known to get recognized on sight. That, of course, is not only completely intentional but aided by Hardison recognizing and deleting all evidence that clearly shows their faces — though he does leave those that don’t leave them directly identifiable, partly because he’s quite fond of the online community that has sprung up to support them.

However, when all is said and all is done, the five of them thrive in the shadows. They live in it and they would all have been killed by one of the many enemies their team has made between them — be it individually or as a team — long before this if they didn’t. This is the only reason why it doesn’t happen faster.

Because the people they help, they talk. Not just to each other, but to their friends and colleagues and pretty much anyone who will listen. And not everyone believes them, yes.

But enough of them do. Enough that — when they, in turn, talk to their own friends and family — the belief starts to become relevant enough to truly matter. In the end, the important thing isn’t whether or not all of them actually think the members of the crew are something other than human. What is important is that they tell and retell the story enough times, every time with at least a small spark of belief behind their words. If not in the godhood, then at least in the team being _good_ and _powerful_.

The distinction is minor enough in the grand scheme of things.

* * *

Hardison is the first out of them to notice something different. He notices when there is a hack that ends up being just a tad too easy. The whole code is basically surrendering itself and offering itself on a silver platter, that’s how easy it is. And it should not be. He knows that.

Many people would expect him to boast about it or to fail to realize it at all — due to what they perceive as arrogance but is in all reality just confidence in his abilities. They’ll think that he’ll take it for granted or par for the course.

But no. That is not what happens.

Hardison knows himself and his skills. He would not have _got_ where he is now if he did not. So, when a hack is noticeably easier — just barely, but nevertheless significantly enough to become aware of it, he becomes suspicious.

_(He does consider many possibilities, from the interference of other hackers, over a poorly thought out shift in safety policy, all the way to himself overcoming a hurdle in the learning curve whose existence he had not previously been aware of._

_He does consider the truth, but only for a single moment before dismissing it as farfetched.)_

* * *

**providingleverage** _new member_

So, I haven’t posted on this site before, feel free to delete and direct me to the right place to post this if I got this wrong, but I’m pretty confident that I’m at the right place.  
A little bit of background. My maternal family is Japanese American and we’ve been here long enough that my grandparents were in the internment camps back in WW2. My paternal side of the family is Mexican, but on that side, I am actually the first to be born here in the States.  
You can see where this is going if you’ve paid any attention to what the President has been up to in the last few years. For those that have not, apparently, YES WE CAN increase the rates of deporting immigrants.  
I’ll not go into the details of how precarious the situation was for my family, because it was safe to say that we were attempting to fight it with all we had, but — secretly and individually — assuming the worst and preparing failsafe so that me and my siblings wouldn’t enter foster care (that was a real danger for reasons that would take too long to get into).  
At some point, I stumbled over this site and decided, _well, why the fuck not_? It certainly wasn’t going to hurt, especially since this team allegedly (truthfully), gets their payment from “an alternative source”. So I made an account, messaged someone who told their story (though admittedly in a bit more detail) and made contact with the team.  
And. They. Helped.  
But they didn’t just prevent a good chunk of my family being deported, they _somehow_ made sure that this is not going to happen again in this area for the next few years at least. I don’t know how they did it — and to be honest, I’m not certain I want to know — but they did it. They did more than I thought _anyone_ could do, not just for my family but for humanity as a whole, if even half of the stories on this site are true.

_Show 47 replies_

* * *

Parker is good at what they do. There’s no doubt in that.

Parker knows what they can do. They know how saves and security systems work, they know how to observe a building for a heist and, more recently, they are also getting pretty decent at things like grifting or hacking.

Which is why they are offended when an ever-increasing number of jobs became easier than they should be. At first, they had simply attributed the change to the benefits of working with a team, and there certainly is _some_ truth in that, but that’s not all of it.

They can help, definitely, and they do, too. But that doesn’t change the fact that they can’t unlock doors that by all accounts should be locked, for example, and there’s also been a high count of disabled alarms and distracted guards that the team hadn’t known about before.

Parker doesn’t know what this is caused by. They do, however, know that they would very much like to get it to stop. It’s getting too _easy_ and that’s just boring.

_(It will never stop. This is not how this all works. This is not how this works at all.)_

* * *

David Brooks had never been to McRoy’s pub before. He had just moved to Boston less than a month ago, after all. He’s been to busy to check out some pub at the other end of the city, but his fellow grad students had dragged him out to this place and, once he saw the ...owners? Waiters? They mostly seem to switch between the tasks, so David doesn’t know. Once he sees them, he is so very thankful to be here. 

They were passing out drinks and taking orders, so they were definitely affiliated with the pub in some way. There’s five of them and if there’s one thing they have in common, it is that they cause his sweet little pansexual heart to get excited.

There’s a little blond one that David gathers is called Parker that brings his wallet to their table before David even realizes that he had dropped it, a long-haired man that he assumes to be the cook that gives up an aura as if he’d think Bear Grylls was a terrible amateur, and a dark-skinned man behind the counter that seems to be working on not just the drinks, but also something very important and possibly illegal on his laptop.

Then, there is a woman and a man who at one point sat down in one of the booths with one of the other patrons of the bar. They seem to be having a fairly intense conversation, David notices, and the brunette seems to be offering emotional support while the other one empties his glass, stands up, and declares they’ll take care of it.

They’re not really alike in looks, not at all, but in David’s opinion, they all have something of a Greco-Roman statue. He can’t pinpoint what it is exactly that makes him think that — he’s a physicist, not a historian or artist — but it definitely sounds right to him.

_(There’s a small voice in the back of his mind that disagrees._

_They’re not Greek or Roman. They’re something else._

_Something_ **_new_** _.)_

* * *

Eliot had been in a lot of fights in his life. This is not a surprise to anyone who knows him even just a little bit. This is what he does. It’s what he lives and breathes at this point.

It doesn’t mean that he always likes it, but now that he has found a new purpose where he gets to help people instead of hurting them and even help right some of the wrongs that he has committed in his life and — while definitely not erasing them from his ledger — at least make up for a fraction of those he cannot right, now that he has found that, he finds that he truly doesn’t mind.

He fights for something _good_ now. He helps and protects people and he’s not going to stop until he eventually dies while doing so. Eliot knows he will, this is what he is meant to do and the human body can only take so much.

Only… only when he starts caring for his wounds after a battle, he’s getting an increasing number of wounds not being there when they most definitely should be. Eliot knows how the human body works. He knows what it can handle. And he knows that his body should very much not be able to handle quite as much as it seems to be doing more and more consistently. And that’s not even mentioning the scars that he’s had for years and years that are starting to fade.

_(He doesn’t know what it is that is causing this. He could never have thought up the explanation because he stopped believing in any kind of supernatural power years and years ago._

_How could he guess that he is in the process of becoming one himself?)_

* * *

William Michael Arburg the Third hadn’t gone into politics with the desire to become corrupt. He had truly believed that he would stand up for what he believes in with his head held high. And the first time he had been approached by a businessman intending to buy him, his resolve had been strong enough to say no. He had, however, not reported this to anyone and consequently, a second one had eventually been waiting for him in his office. And then a third.

He had also denied them, but then Ian Cooper had come along and he had known what William wanted, what his price was. And accepting it once had slowly but surely turned into actively integrating it into his household budget. He hadn’t consciously realized just what he had been doing until it was too late, until he couldn’t get out unscratched anymore even if he wanted to, until he was at the point where he honestly wasn’t even sure that he wanted to stop anymore. Why not? he had thought. He hadn’t been caught so far, so he might as well continue.

But then his luck stops. He and Cooper are caught. In all honesty, it is amazing that he has even lasted this long. The longer he thinks about that, the more obvious it becomes. If the system was working the way it should in this regard, the two of them should have been discovered years ago. 

Now that he is being brought to what is more than likely overdue justice by this team, he has to admit — if only to himself — that it almost feels like an honor. Of course, he would have preferred to get away with it all, but if he had to be caught, then he was definitely glad that it had been them and not some random journalist — or worse podcaster — getting into his matters. William cannot consciously decide on what exactly it is that makes it different. What he does know is that something deep inside him is convinced that he is lucky to survive their wrath.

_(And he is. Had they been in the old times, this amount of personal attention would have resulted in a survival chance of nearly zero. But they aren’t like the gods of old. They easily could be, if they wanted to. Especially now that they have come so far._

_But this is not what the Leverage team is about. They’re righting injustices, they’re being the good guys. And the brutality of the old times does not cooperate with that.)_

* * *

It takes Sophie a while to realize that anything had changed. She is good, very good, and she knows that. She wouldn’t have gotten herself in the position she is now. She would have been caught by Nate before they had gotten on the same side. She wouldn’t have gotten herself included in the wider British nobility. Sophie is _excellent_ and she is well aware of that.

That changes when there come a few times where her cover should have been blown by all accounts. Where the mark should have realized that they were being played, where someone should have recognized her, but then that failed to happen.

And so Sophie starts to pay attention to it. It doesn’t take long until she realizes that it becomes less and less of a challenge to convince a mark of a story. There is an inherent, underlying trust in her words that hadn’t been there when she started out. The first time she realizes this, she thinks that it’s just a specific trait of their mark. Once that appears a second time — and then a third, fourth, fifth — at completely different places with completely different people with quite different personalities, that proves itself to be wrong. The only common factor is none other than _her_.

_(She does not know what to do with that. There isn’t really an obvious solution, not based on what she knows to be real. And she always works better when she has a framework to work with.)_

* * *

After the members of Leverage Consulting and Associates leave, after they have returned their home to them, taken away most if not all of the resources of the man that had robbed it in the first place and brought justice, Nuri Karuti and Pol Kober continue to stand in the driveway for a bit. They’re still full of shocked disbelief just barely surpassed by an almost surreal level of impression that the team had left behind.

“They must be aliens, or angels, or gods, or _something_ ,” Nuri insists for what must be the twentieth time. This, however, is the first time that xeir wife mentions gods on the list.

Huh. Pol thinks as xey realize that. Gods. Xey isn’t normally the type for that sort of belief, but...

“You might be onto something with that god idea,” xey replies, as a joke, but then something deep, deep inside xem agrees. It does make an amazing amount of sense.

_Could it be?_

* * *

Here is something that not one of the team knows at this point but affects all of them to a degree that they never could have foreseen: the main thing you need to become a god is nothing other than _belief_.

If enough people believe utterly and from the bottom of their hearts that you will be able to do the impossible, to do things that no human should be able to pull off, then you will be able to do them eventually. It doesn’t work unless they well and truly are convinced in their belief, but that can be achieved by doing something very impressive relatively easily. The tricky part is doing it enough times for it to matter.

Now consider what the Leverage Team does, how they continue to fix what is wrong, how they help, how they bring justice, which odds they repeatedly defeat, and just how many peoples’ lives they have affected. 

Belief, they have more than just covered. Especially since they don’t stop doing what they do but continue, treating every job as just as important as the last, even if the complexity and scale differ enormously.

_(Now, just for a second, imagine what they could do if they had known this before it was too late to change anything. Imagine how they could have grown their followers in certain, darker days or how they could have tried to prevent the change._

_Think about it, and decide which world you like the best.)_

* * *

_No plan ever survives first contact with the enemy_. Nate doesn’t know who said it originally but he very much knows that it is the truth. It is why he plans for every eventuality he can think of and then some. There’s some he prefers over others, definitely, yes. And there are consequently some, like Plan M, that he is never going to set in motion unless _literally_ all the other available options have been explored in their entirety.

But he still has the plans because it is better to be at least prepared for the worst, rather than be caught off guard and have to come up with something on the spot. Nate can do that, yes, but he also knows that he is going to fail the one time that it will be the most important. After all, that is the way that it had been before, with Sam. He had failed to come up with a plan when it mattered the most. So yes, Nate would much more prefer to simply go through his list of prepared plans until he finds one he can adapt to fit their current situation.

He had dozens if not hundreds of plans prepared. And even when his alcohol addiction is at its worst — in the time frame after he met his team, his _family_ , at least — he knows when he starts using them less and less. Curiously, the alcohol seems to be affecting him less pretty much at the same time, to a degree that cannot be explained by getting used to having it in his system again.

This and the increasing number of plans going right confuse him equally. Nate spends quite a lot of time between jobs thinking about these mysteries, but he doesn’t come up with an explanation that satisfies him.

_(This is, in part, due to the fact that he views them as mostly separate, or that the plans working out in their favor a consequence of being less drunk when coming up with them. He doesn’t understand that it is closer to the other way around, doesn’t understand that they both are caused by the same thing and that that thing is nothing other than the belief that he created himself.)_

* * *

During the time that Sophie is off to find herself, she is temporarily replaced by her friend Tara Cole. And Tara is good at her job, excellent even. She is, however, still no Sophie, moral differences aside. She doesn’t integrate into the team quite so seamlessly and she can’t _quite_ pull off the impossible. Tara’s very, very close to it, but that does not change the fact that she does not. This is only part of the reason why the rest of the team keeps trying to get Sophie to return. There’s just something different to her, something that makes her the odd one out to the point the rest isn’t even really trying to change that.

That sense, for that matter, is mutual. Because yes, Tara thinks their whole Robin Hood scheme is kind of stupid and she finds the way that Nate talks to be too complicated and self-important, but that isn’t actually the main concern. Not that she would ever admit that to anyone but herself — because she makes it a point to be honest with herself as she’s not with anyone else — but the whole team has something surreal about it. And it’s not just the way that they keep winning, but the whole essence of everyone involved — including Sophie, much to her dislike — that just seems so superhuman. It’s an illogical word choice and Tara knows that, but it’s still the best she has been able to think of.

_(It is not. It is among the most accurate she could have chosen, really.)_

* * *

The Kings of the gods know about the powers of themselves and their pantheons to notice a disturbance. They are aware that a new pantheon is in the progress of forming. They are, however, not sure how to react to this.

Of course, such a meeting would be impossible to hold with all Kings of gods simply because of the chaos that that would bring with it, so each continent — plus the islands — sent one delegate to the meeting held somewhere over the oceans as that was the most neutral ground they had. That way, there was at least the possibility of a successful meeting. Thanks to the godly powers of the assembled, they were all able to speak in their native tongue and be understood perfectly.

“I still maintain that we should hunt them down before they become a danger,” Khonvoum of the Bambuti Pygmy states.

“That worked out well the first time for you,” Angwusnasomtaka, the delegate of the Hopi tribe and only goddess in the room, retorts.

The rainbow snakes that form Khonvoum’s bow begin to hiss in her direction, while the hunter himself retorts. “So what you want this group stumbling around and messing things up even more than those Christians already did?”

“I’m just thinking that we should initiate them into our ways,” Angwusnasomtaka responds. “They seem to be decent — especially considering that they were raised in the settler country. They appear to understand the evils of colonization and capitalism. There is a chance that they could begin to help heal at least a small part of the things that were done.”

Khonvoum snorted. “I cannot believe you actually think that.”

“Why don’t we separate them?” Tāne of the Māori proposes. “Separating them would help limit the growth of their followers, not just because they always appear together in their stories and appearing alone makes a connection more difficult, but also because it would reduce the success rate and cause some doubt.”

“At this point, their turning is close to inevitable,” Dangun of Korea disagrees. “It would be best to ensure that they are not going to oppose us violently.” 

Zeus snorts. “They couldn’t beat all of us.” He does not admit that a lot of the pantheons are probably weak enough to be forgotten at this point, were it not for academic interest and the descendants (quite rightfully) clinging to their heritage with everything they have. Even if there has been at least a slight increase in their followers in the last century or so.

“The humans have made their own decisions, as it is their right to,” Țupa of the Guaraní people argues. “We should respect that. After all none of us would have wanted anyone to intervene during our own formations.”

“That was something entirely different!” the delegate from what is called southeast Australia protests. His name is not to be used publicly and will thus not be mentioned. His opinion, however, falls under no such rule. 

“Apart from the fact that most of us formed out of something other than a human originally, what really is the difference?” Dangun points out. 

“He has a point,” Zeus acknowledges. “I know that a great number of divine beings that first started as representations for things like way stones and hot springs. I’m sure we’re not the only ones with stories like this.”

A murmur of agreement goes around the room at that. It is a fair point, after all. From a god’s perceptive, is there really a difference between starting out as a hot spring or a human? 

_(There is one._

_The human origin is much more responsible for their own ascending. Especially when compared to a pile of rocks._

_So, all things considered, it is arguably a whole lot more impressive.)_

* * *

**l.c.a.savedmylife:** [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOz1kWArUuA ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOz1kWArUuA)

**l.c.a.savedmylife:** i have a new sighting

 **BaseballMusicianBoxer:**!!!!!!!!!

 **Spiderthief:** Oh, that’s a good look. I haven’t seen one this good in ages.

 **Spiderthief:** A good look at them, I mean.

 **neverplanm:** it’s still a good look anyway

 **GTHTW:** it also works without the correction tho

 **neverplanm:** hey, twinning!

 **GTHTW:** yessssss

 **BaseballMusicianBoxer:** do we know what they took care of yet????

 **Spiderthief:** I do not.

 **GTHTW:** nope :P

 **l.c.a.savedmylife:** I haven’t heard anything for sire

 **l.c.a.savedmylife:** *suer

 **l.c.a.savedmylife:** *srue

 **l.c.a.savedmylife:** *s u r e

 **l.c.a.savedmylife:** gdi

 **GTHTW:** this is comedy gold

 **Spiderthief:** Can we get back to the point instead of messing around, please?

 **Spiderthief:** Our glorious gods have appeared again and we do not yet know what we can thank them for this time.

 **neverplanm:** ok so i’d have phrased it differently, but i agree

 **GTHTW:** you never let us have fun

 **l.c.a.savedmylife:** do not joke about my pain.

 **Spiderthief:** Can we focus, just once, please?

 **GTHTW:** have you ever had fun in your life, ST? cause i don’t think so.

 **BaseballMusicianBoxer:** DON’T FIGHT PEEPS

 **BaseballMusicianBoxer:** WE HAVE A MYSTERY TO SOLVE; LET’S GET TO IT PEEPS

* * *

Once all five members of Leverage Consulting and Associates are aware of the ways they have changed — even if, at this point, none of them have any real idea about the _why_ — it becomes easier to spot the same thing in the other members of their team. Of course, they are all suspicious bastards, so it doesn’t take them much time at all to talk about the changes they have noticed in the others. This is a good thing, as they likely would never have talked about it at all if it weren’t for them noticing the others. 

They keep their past to themselves. The hurt, the pain, the losses, and even some parts of the love and successes that are still a bit too precious for the bond they share at the moment. But the bonds between them have been growing and flourishing for a while, and it’s big enough that they _care_. About each other and about how these strange happenings might influence their team, yes, but also about the way it might hurt them.

And so when Sophie tells their mark a near unbelievable story and their mark is immediately convinced so that Parker can sneak to his safe without worrying about an interruption, when Parker gets through a door that Hardison _knows_ neither of them had unlocked, when Hardison is surprised by another layer of security but is done before Eliot can even ask how much longer he needs to hold the people off, when Nate _sees_ the fight that Eliot walks away from unscratched, when Sophie _knows_ that this new plan of Nate shouldn’t work but it _does_ , all in the same day, they come together once it’s all done and _talk_.

“Something weird is going on,” Sophie begins the conversation since none of the others seem to be willing to. At least if the way the boys have been sitting around the couch and Parker has been staring out of the window are any indications.

“Ya think?” Hardison responds. “What tipped you off? The suspiciously unlocked doors? The way everything just seems to work out for us? The way none of Eliot’s bones appear to be broken? — yes, this one is meant specifically for this job, Eliot, calm down. Or maybe the way your grifting seems to require less work? Because I know that it’s not been my hacking going through the same, not unless you took a few lessons about computers and didn’t tell me. In which case I’m high key offended that you didn’t just ask me for lessons.”

“She didn’t take any lessons,” Nate interjects before Sophie can reply, much to her dismay. “Just like I didn’t get a medical degree in the last few years to tell you that Eliot definitely should be wounded after that fight.”

“Don’t need a degree for that,” Eliot responds, “I could have told you that. I can also tell you that Murphy definitely shouldn’t have believed your tale about that missing ex you needed her help finding quite this easily.” He looks directly at Sophie for that part.

“This man is making an excellent point,” says Hardison, pointing one of his candies in Eliot’s direction. “Like seriously, we didn’t even need to fake a missing person notice. Which is almost a shame, really. I’d have loved to see just how easy it is now with all of this bullshit going on.”

“Is it just me or does that sound like this has been going on for a while now?” Sophie interrupts, crossing her arms in front of her.

“It does, yes,” Nate agrees. “Does anyone else have something of that sort? I do.”

There are a few murmurs of agreement around the room until suddenly, Parker turns back towards them, eyes opened wide. “Have we been drugged? Are we hallucinating?”

“That’s not what’s happening,” Eliot answers. “That much I can promise.”

Alec nods. “Yeah, I agree. This has been going on too long and too consistently for that.”

“So then what’s happening?” Parker asks, but none of them have a response.

_(Or, more accurately, none of them have an explanation that sounds even halfway reasonable enough to share with the others. At the very least not without further, nearly impossible to attain, proof._

_Most of them aren’t actually that far off from the truth. The truth is so outlandish that none of them actually believe what’s happening at this point._

_Kind of ironic, really.)_

* * *

The Leverage team gets their payment from an alternative resource if they get one at all. This is nothing new. Their clients all know this, even if a lot of them probably never think about where exactly the money technically comes from in extensive detail.

But the point is, the team doesn’t take money from their clients, and they only rarely accept more than a bit of food or something of that sort by them even when offered. There are a bunch of people who offer, of course, because the team fails in fewer and fewer cases the longer they work and the people they help are just so thankful that they cannot let they saviors go without at least attempting to offer them some sort of payback for all that the team of Leverage Consulting and Associates has done for them.

The people who are convinced that the team consists out of higher beings nearly always offer them a home-cooked meal of some sort. And those meals are more than simple thanks — not only because they are also often offered during jobs — they are _offerings_. And when an offering is accepted by them, it gives them more power. The fact that the five of them accept them more and more frequently suggests that on some level, buried deep, deep in their subconscious, they are aware of what is going on. 

Or maybe they tend to find out that all other food — with the notable exception of that grown and prepared by Eliot — seems to pale in comparison. Every day, it tastes a little bit more lackluster and eventually even ashy. By the time it makes it to the latter category, however, enough other stuff has happened that this falls a bit behind in the list of priorities. 

_(The food by Eliot is different from the offerings, in the way that a snow coat and a raincoat are different. They are similar on some level, yes, there is never any doubt about that. But there is just as little doubt that the two are made with largely different intentions. That doesn’t make one of them better or worse than the other._

_Food prepared neither by Eliot nor by their thankful clients, meanwhile, is nothing more than a light summer jacket that’s designed more for aesthetics than purpose. There’s a similarity there, but it’s still different enough that everyone notices that within a heartbeat.)_

* * *

“They’re an interesting bunch, aren’t they?” Raven comments as he lands beside Huehuecoyotl in the pub that is their meeting place this time. It is frequented by humans, but of course, none of them notice the odd group in the corner.

“Who?” responds the same. It is obvious by her voice that she knows exactly who Raven is talking about. A response like this is to be expected at a meeting of tricksters, after all.

These meetings had originally started out as a way to brag about their latest accomplishments, but they had rather quickly turned into a gossip cycle. Though, of course, that by no means means that the bragging element got completely lost. They were still trickster gods and goddesses, after all, even if no one is quite sure which of these is the bigger cause of that. Probably both in all honesty. 

“The people the kings were panicking about a bit back,” Susanoo-no-Mikoto explains, mostly to give them all another chance to make fun of the kings, which they promptly do because, well, they’re _tricksters_.

“Don’t know why the kings are so worried about these guys. They weren’t half as worried about Hershel a while back. Possibly because it’s a whole pantheon this time,” Loki muses. And that might actually be it.

“Ah, Hershel,” Br’er Rabbit says fondly before Loki can give his theory much more thought. “Hanging out with him and John the Conqueror is always fun.”

As Anasi voices his agreement, Māui complains, “I still don’t understand why gets to be named with his title every time and no one else does.”

“It’s because without the addition, his name is too _biblical_ ,” Loki explains. And considering how many of them had been nearly eradicated by Christians and/or linked to the Christian devil, that explanation is understood quite well.

“To get back to the newbies,” Raven attempts to steer the conversation back to its original purpose.

There is no pause before Anasi states, “They definitely make for a great story.”

“Agreed,” says Huehuecoyotl. “They’re so interesting that I haven’t been truly bored in a while.”

“And they’ve certainly accomplished quite a bit,” Māui admits grudgingly. “I mean, it’s no lengthening the days or pulling up islands, _obviously,_ but they’re honestly doing quite well.”

After a brief interruption where they all name a few of the things that they had done that the not-quite-new-gods-yet have not surpassed — at least not so far — the rest of them acknowledge that Māui is correct in his assessment.

“They have done things that they regret, but they keep getting back up to continue fighting instead of letting the things they had to do to survive weigh them down. You know I always approve of that,” Br’er Rabbit states. “I also love that they stand up for the small guys.”

“Like Hershel and John the Conqueror,” Raven adds with a smile in Māui’s direction.

The god in question promptly sticks out his tongue, as is the proper etiquette among the tricksters.

“All joking aside, I feel that they would fit in well if they want to,” Susanoo-no-Mikoto points out.

Loki privately assumes that the fact that they have made mistakes and are now redeeming themselves is something that the other god relates to. He is not going to mention that, because that goes below the belt and they’ve long since stopped these kinds of jokes between them outside of their fights. It’s quite nice, honestly.

“They’re definitely quite fun,” he says instead. 

“And you, Raven,” Huehuecoyotl asks. “What do you think about all this?”

“She’s right. You’ve started this whole conversation but you have yet to actually say what you think about them yourself,” Anasi notices.

Raven smiles at them. “Isn’t it obvious?” he asks. “They love and protect humans as much as I do. I am very much looking forward to their complete ascension.”

“That’s a good point.” Māui nods.

* * *

“Do you remember that time in Kassel?” Sophie turns to Nate one the evening of another job gone right. The other three members of their team were out celebrating on their own.

“With the _documenta X_?” Nate asks before he corrects himself. “No, it was the eleventh one, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, it was.” Sophie nods approvingly. “ _documenta_ is always an interesting goal because they don’t announce their artists until the exhibition opens. So you’ll never know what you’re gonna get.”

“At least not as a grifter,” Nate inserts with a smile. “I’m sure Hardison could figure it out if he wanted.”

Sophie moves over towards Nate. “Yes, but Hardison doesn’t appreciate the arts as I do.”

“You’ve got a point there.” Nate pulls her in closer towards him. “You got something from a photographer if I remember correctly. Rineke Dijkstra, correct?”

“Yes, I did. I had created a beautiful role, Rafaela Baumann, student of the _Kunsthochschule Kassel_ with a focus on visual communication who was highly qualified for an internship that just so happened to include the exhibition.”

Two things happened while she was speaking. The first being that Sophie had placed her arms around Nate’s neck and pulled him closer towards her.

And Nate would have enjoyed that very, very much, were it not for the second thing. That thing being that Sophie’s appearance had actually begun to shift closer towards the look that Rafaela had, except this time obviously without the help of any sort of makeup, dye or wig. And yet she is inexplicably and irrefutably blonde.

Nate takes a step back because he really has no idea how else to react at this moment, even if there is some deep, instinctual part of him insisting that this all perfectly normal.

“Nate?” Sophie asks confused. “What just happened?”

“I really don’t know,” Nate responds. “But _something_ did.” He pauses and Sophie seems about to respond when he takes some of her hair and brings it into her field of vision.

In response to that, Sophie blinks. Then she blinks again. Then she speaks. “What? _How?_ ”

Nate shrugs. “I don’t know. But we’re going to find out.”

_(He doesn’t mention the fact that he has a suspicion. Because he’s got an unusually certain idea how that would go and he honestly thinks that he will prefer this result.)_

* * *

Jim Sterling knows Nathan Ford. He also knows of his team. And he knows exactly what they can do, individually or all of them working together.

Or, at least, that was what he had thought until this very day.

He had not expected Hardison to realize what exactly Livingston’s security was on sight. Nate, given a few moments to think about it, yes. But not Hardison. The recording clearly showed Hardison glancing at the plate _exactly_ before Livingston even activated it. Which just doesn’t make any sense in any way, shape or form.

And speaking of that, Parker had learned how to copy Livingston’s walk cycle too fast for it to be realistically possible. Had it been Spencer, Jim might have been willing to concede the possibility but this is not what Parker had been trained for. He had entirely trusted on the thief's ability to master it, but he hadn’t even remotely considered the possibility that it would be quite this fast.

Jim also knows that Nate is good at chess, but he isn’t _that_ good. Or at the very least he hadn’t been before this point unless he had been hiding his abilities for no reason at all, which just was completely out of character for him. It is, however, undeniable, that he won against the other chess prodigies, with no tricks whatsoever. None of his opponents had a weird complaint or anything of that sort.

Between this, Parker, and Spencer somehow knowing that the coffee was drugged before it had even been in the car — which also was impossible for _obvious reasons_ — Jim had honestly been afraid that he wouldn’t be able to reunite with Olivia after all. It would have been horrible to get _so close_ and yet have to stay so far apart.

But that is not what ended up happening. Jim still isn’t quite sure how she did it — nevermind _why_ , given their past encounters — but she somehow managed to distract all the people in the room without the rest of the team, a prepared plan that Jim knows of or even an unusual occurrence to fall back on. 

Jim cannot explain it, but given the fact that they still helped him reunite with his daughter — and, apparently, deliberately and knowingly so — he can’t really bring himself to be mad.

Or, to be more accurate, to be anything but incredibly thankful.

* * *

_showing results for_ **#GodsOfLCA**

 **pantheon of leverage** @OmegaCitrus _six minutes ago_

Remember my **#GodsOfLCA** prayer? It worked!!

**excited for DH2!!** @greenbean _17 minutes ago_

Each individual member of the **#GodsOfLCA** deserves some kind of award. regardless of whether or not they’re actually gods. (they are)

**random guy** @P13L _30 minutes ago_

the **#GodsOfLCA** just saved my entire life’s work and it didn’t even look that hard. ofc they’re gods. what else could they be?

**i like apples** @SnakeofEden _1 hour ago_

idk who the **#GodsOfLCA** are, but they seem to be causing some trouble and i’m always a fan of that

**almost lawyer** @SamWin _1 hour ago_

 **#GodsOfLCA** seem to be the first gods that actually *give a shit*

**move over jesus** @thinkingboutyou _1 hour ago_

If you gave me a quarter for every person who the **#GodsOfLCA** saved, I’d be rich enough to fall in the group of people they go after

**pantheon of leverage** @OmegaCitrus _2 hours ago_

I’m praying to the **#GodsOfLCA** that my professor will accept my late work bc I had a personal emergency

**Nomi (she/her)** @hacktivist _2 hours ago_

the **#GodsOfLCA** helped me leave my childhood home and i will be eternally thankful for them

**history nerd official** @laflaflaf _2 hours ago_

thank you twitter for appreciating **#GodsOfLCA** with me. I don’t know where i would be without them

* * *

“I think you’re being stupid. For the record,” Eliot comments as the three of them make their way into the small abandoned warehouse they’d decided to use for this strange experiment.

“Why though, man?” Hardison replies. “We’ve all realized something weird is going on, right? So what’s wrong with trying to figure it out? I mean, worst-case scenario is nothing really happens and then we at least know what’s _not_ a thing.” As he speaks, he moves more towards the middle of the empty building.

“That’s what’s going to happen,” Eliot deadpans. He doesn’t follow Hardison. Instead, he leans on the wall near the door.

Parker, meanwhile, has closed the door and is now walking around the walls of the structure to figure out the best way to climb it up. The best way, of course, being the one that is the most challenging, since there are no factors of not being seen or getting somewhere specific.

“But then at least we’ll _know_!” Alec argues. Because that is really it when it comes down to it all. The uncertainty of just what is happening around them takes up more of his thought process than Alec is willing to admit. And with jobs like theirs, that’s just not safe.

“We already know what’s going to happen. Absolutely nothing,” Eliot responds. To both Alec and Parker, it is obvious that he isn't quite as convinced of that as he pretends to be, but there are no other beings in the world who would be able to tell. 

“Well, it is not going to hurt to try,” Parker interrupts them as they climb. “And besides, why are you here if you’re sure we’re wasting our time?”

“They’ve got you there buddy,” Hardison responds and — under the assumption that that is what the nod means — Eliot has to concede that yes, Parker does. “Besides, I don’t know about you, but I’ve been talking with Parker and we’ve both been hearing these strange… whispers in the back of our minds.”

“Prayers!” Parker corrects from above. “That’s what they are.”

Hardison still isn’t _quite_ sure of that. Yes, that is what they sound like, but despite the fact that it feels so, so _right_ , intellectually, he’s still holding back. Maybe it’s because he’s imagining his Nana’s reaction to hearing all this. But before he can actually find the words to say anything, Parker actually jumps from above.

And while that most certainly is nothing unusual for Parker, there is still something odd about that. Namely, that they are wearing absolutely none of their gear. For a second, Hardison’s heart stops _(except somehow, it feels even more like a metaphor than usual)_ , when he sees his love falling right in front of him. He screams in terror and Eliot is at his side literally before he even began to move.

And so the three of them are standing there. Parker hovering quite a few inches above the hands of Eliot — who had literally crossed the room in less than a blink — and those of Hardison. Under the latter ones, the very ground is moved upward, in the way that suggests that it, too, was trying to catch Parker. Except that it was guided in that decision.

“Don’t do this to me, Parker,” Eliot managed to say once they have calmed down enough to think again.

Parker, still hovering, shrugs. “Your arguing was taking too long.”

“So this was your idea?” Hardison questions incredulously. “I mean, obviously it worked, but could you not have chosen a way that was less likely to give me a heart attack? Maybe one with a failsafe or something.”

“Definitely a good idea,” Eliot agrees.

“I _knew_ it would work guys,” Parker insists. “Just from somewhere deep inside of me.”

_(They are far enough in their transformations that this is just something that is intrinsically true. And Parker is the kind of person to have full and complete trust in their abilities, even if they are just newly realized ones._

_That, and they is the type who honestly just_ believe _that they can do it and so they can, with this change. A whole lot of this is based on belief, really._

_Or, if that fails, then protective instinct rarely fails to act as a substitute.)_

* * *

Hardison’s Nana had raised him right. He knows that he needs to get his flu shots every damn year — because he’s not a fool — and so he does. Even if he’s been going under fake names the last few years, he still got them every single year. This year, he’s under the name of Takeo Mosley and he reacts like that actually is his name, even if it is the first time using this particular alias. That’s one of the many benefits of working with this team.

While he’s already at the doctor, he figures that he might as well get a check-up. He’s pretty sure that he’s not hallucinating all the strange happenings, however, making sure certainly wouldn’t hurt. He doesn’t really know what he’s expecting, in all honesty, but he’s pretty sure that it’s not this. 

He’s not a medical expert, but he knows enough that a shocked doctor means either something bad or something weird — and statistically speaking probably bad — is going on. And to say that his doctor of the year, one Fiona Roberts, is shocked would be a gross understatement.

“I’m going to be honest, Mr. Mosley. None of your tests make any sense. And I’ve been assured that they haven’t just been double or triple, but quadruple checked. We have to assume that the samples have been contaminated somehow.

“We don’t know how that happened exactly since there is no evidence, but that is the most logical explanation we can think of. We also do not know by what it has been contaminated, just that it was most certainly not a human.”

Dr. Roberts continues her explanation for a bit — answering all the partly faked questions that he can think of — and offers him to retake the samples, which he denies. Because there is a voice at the back of his mind that is unlike the, well, prayers.

This voice is powerful and instinctual. And it insists that retaking the tests is completely and utterly pointless because the result will be the exact same. It tells him that he is no longer human, that he is something different.

Honestly, he is starting to believe it.

_(And he should, too. Because it is completely accurate._

_At this point, there is only the tiniest bit of humanity left in the team of Leverage Consulting and Associates and it is far too late to reverse it even if they tried.)_

* * *

“So, we all agree that something supernatural is going on, right?” Parker asks as they returns from the fridge with some drinks for the team. They are, after all, fairly sure that this is not a discussion to have sober. Though they has also noticed an increase in their tolerance over the last few years.

“We do,” Eliot replies from his place at the table as he thankfully accepts the beer they throw more at him than handing it over. They know that he will catch it. Not just because of his reflexes — though that is a part of this — but also because they have been becoming more and more aware of the world around them even if they can’t explain quite how with the five conventional senses.

Sophie, who is sat on the couch next to Nate, nods. “I think that at this point it’s safe to say that we would have noticed if this all was some sort of con.”

“Yeah, I agree. Plus, I haven’t heard of any con that can make me hear prayers,” Hardison adds. “I’ve heard dozens of pleas for various pieces of tech to work or for people to get the hang of programming and shit and at this point, I’m willing to bet that all of you have similar things.”

Once they has handed over all the drinks, Parker sits down at the table with Alec and Eliot. Directly between them, because there is just no other way to be. Except one of their boys being between them and the other. “You know that I do,” they say.

“I’m still not sure if I would call it a prayer,” Nate argues. And Parker knows that the man had once been well on his way to becoming a priest, but they can’t figure out how he would still think that when the prayers are just so obviously that.

Granted, Parker’s knowledge of prayers is almost entirely from pop culture or from former foster parents screaming things like ‘you better pray that I don’t see you again’ after them when they left. So there is certainly a possibility that they are simply missing some element here.

“Regardless of whether or not they actually are prayers, they certainly sound like them,” Sophie argues, which Nate acknowledges by raising his drink in her direction.

“So let’s assume for a moment that they are actually prayers. For discussion’s sake,” Alec proposes. “Assume that they are prayers, what does that mean?”

“Well,” Sophie says after a second of thought. “The most logical explanation would be that they come from people praying. And people usually only pray like this to people that they actually see as divine. And then there’s the fact that we’re actually hearing it all...”

Eliot finishes his drink just before he responds. “So you’re saying that we’re, what, some sort of gods?”

This resonates with something inside of each of them. Something that is powerful. And that something strongly agrees with this suggestion that seems so absurd intellectually.

“It makes an amazing amount of sense,” Parker states and none of their team can really bring themselves to disagree.

_(And they shouldn’t. It is correct, after all._

_At this point, they are beginning to grasp that, too.)_

* * *

The team of Leverage Consulting and Associates had never intentionally decided that they should try to become gods. They never had set out to try to convince anyone of their grandeur, they never actively tried to impress anyone into believing that they are more than human, and — although they probably could have pulled it off — they never even conned anyone into thinking that they are.

And that is why their transformation works so well. This is why the belief in them becomes widespread so quickly, despite the prevalence of Christianity in these times.

The five of them, they just set out to try and help people after their lives had gotten to a point where there were few ways but up. Most if not all of them have hurt people to various degrees in the past but they actively made the decision to try to be better. They know that they cannot take back the hurt they did but they consciously chose to try and make up for some of them.

And they are competent enough that they can truly right the injustices that have been committed by others in a way that almost looks like magic from an outside perspective. They don’t even demand payment and once it is done, they go out of their way to make it up to the people they have affected negatively while doing so. People know that in an increasing amount of cases — later on in nearly all of the jobs that are brought to them or they catch wind of some other way — they sweep in, fix the problem, and leave again.

In short, even if they came from bad circumstances, they are good people in the grand scheme of things. And they connect with people, too. Not just with each other — although the five of them connect and work together in a way that makes people think they were made to be a team — with other people as well. 

They help and inspire people to try to be better themselves. And between that, their almost frightening level of competence, and what they do, it is not really that surprising that people want to believe in them. 

_(It makes sense. After all, in this day and age, what makes a human believe in something more than in the people they hope they could be?)_

**Author's Note:**

> It didn't really become clear in the fic, but here's what I imagined while writing:  
> Nate - god of planning, justice, and rehabilitation  
> Sophie - goddess of lies, acting, and the arts  
> Parker - god(dess) of theft, innocence, and fire  
> Alec - god of technology, adaptability, and ingenuity  
> Eliot - god of regret, defense, and Protector of children
> 
> The reason none of them are a deity for new beginnings explicitly is that I think it's impossible to pick one of them for this role without being unfair to the others.
> 
> All knowledge regarding the non-European mythology comes from Wikipedia. I will gladly correct myself if I misunderstood something.
> 
> ...did i mention that i am actively debating writing a sequel where they actually handle a job being aware of this all?
> 
> Also, my tumblr is @marvelgeek42. Just in case anyone is interested.


End file.
